


halos and hellos

by EmberGlows



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, College AU, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Roommates, Roommates to lovers, Swearing, claps hands, leggo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:13:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22131586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberGlows/pseuds/EmberGlows
Summary: Petulantly, Lance pouted. “I wanna meet this guy. See what makes him tick.” And even Lance didn’t know whether that meant he wanted to befriend or… be-enemy this Keith person. It’d be the polite thing to do, he figured, sizing up one’s roommate in person to decide whether or not they were a threat.Or something else.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63
Collections: Ace Pilot Exchange 2019





	halos and hellos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maddymayscrawls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddymayscrawls/gifts).



> For dearest MaddyMay!
> 
> Part of the Ace Pilot Discord Server Gift Exchange 2019! Love that server! (I'm so sorry it's a few days late, I just had to make it as perfect as I could for someone as great as you!!!)
> 
> Thank you for your wonderful prompts, my darling, and I hope I did them justice. I hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing <3

It was somewhere around the seventeenth day of his senior year that Lance realized he was the only one who hadn’t actually met his third roommate yet. …Or even seen him, to be honest.

“Kevin,” Pidge announced with surety as she opened the fridge to grab an energy drink. “That’s his name.”

Lance drummed the eraser end of his pencil in a vague rhythm on the kitchen table. The guy could be Gerard Way for all he knew, seeing as he’d never met him. Although there had been a dark blur he had encountered the other day at four in the morning; he’d left the bathroom and shrieked – er, exclaimed – when another guy had bolted out through the front door in what looked like black jogging gear. Lance didn’t know if he could be trusted after that stunt. “Thought it was Kenneth. Ken?”

Humming noncommittally, Pidge rummaged around in the shelves. She pulled out a slice of uncovered brie, squinted at it with a critical eye, then shrugged and took a bite out of it. Lance made a gagging noise, Pidge flipped him off as she slammed the door closed, and Hunk emerged from his bedroom off the kitchen holding a bundle of wires.

“Halo later?” Lance asked him hopefully over the top of his laptop, with his barely started thesis glaring back at him in the stark whiteness of a blank Word document.

“Shay’s,” Hunk said in way of a real answer, and then waved his hand in the direction of Lance’s textbooks strewn about. “And you’re already busy, I can see.”

Lance pulled a face, then stared dejectedly at his keyboard. Maybe he could clean it. And the kitchen. And his room. And the whole place. So that he could concentrate better, of course. Just to be safe.

“Maybe Kevin McAllister can help you when you’re home alone tonight,” Pidge said with a smirk, waving with her brie-holding hand to the direction of Mysterious Roommate’s Bedroom.

Now Lance was really depressed. “You’re not here either?”

Another bite of brie was the answer Pidge went with, around a shit-eating grin. Lance rolled his eyes.

Breezing through the kitchen to head into the living room, wires in one hand, Hunk shook his head. “Keith.”

“Mrmph?” Pidge asked eloquently, swallowing.

“Name’s Keith, guys. Says so on the lease.”

“Yeah, but who reads that?” Pidge muttered, popping the tab on her soda. Lance thought this was a reasonable question.

Hunk shrugged. “He’s a nice guy. Seemed pretty chill. Met him when he was taking out the trash. Ten outta ten in my books.” With a wave, he walked on past, into the adjacent living room to fix up some wires for the TV.

Lance let out a hum, figuring Hunk liked everyone well enough. That wasn’t the most information to go on. “Keith,” he said, testing the word out in his mouth. “Well. What is this Keith up to anyway? Why have I never met him before?”

“Guy’s a loner, from what I can tell. He’s pretty cool though.”

“ _You_ met him too?” Lane squawked. Pidge shrugged and nodded by way of answer. “ _And_ you still couldn’t get his name right?”

She blew a raspberry at him. “I was stuck on some work at four in the morning one day and he managed to help me a little bit before he headed out. Forgive me if I don’t remember all the details.”

This whole situation got stranger and stranger. Lance felt increasingly like a parrot when he made another noise of confusion. “ _He_ helped _you_?”

Very rarely could anyone help Pidge with her work. She shrugged. “He’s pretty smart. Doing a masters in… something.”

From the other room, Hunk’s voice rang out. “Astrophysics.”

“Jesus.” Lance scratched his head. Apparently this Keith guy was a space physics major who dabbled in advanced robotics engineering. As one does. Obviously.

Pidge grinned around another swig of her soda. “Don’t worry, Mr. Linguist, you’re still smart too. On your good days.”

Petulantly, Lance pouted. “I wanna meet this guy. See what makes him tick.” And even Lance didn’t know whether that meant he wanted to befriend or… be-enemy this Keith person. It’d be the polite thing to do, he figured, sizing up one’s roommate in person to decide whether or not they were a threat.

Or something else.

“Well, good luck with that. He doesn’t seem like the one who’d start an English paper the night before its due.” Pidge jutted her chin at Lance’s laptop. He groaned. Grinning, she polished off the rest of her drink and crushed the can on the table with a nod of satisfaction.

Taking a page out of her book, Lance flipped her off as she left the kitchen, laughing all the while.

It was only after she left that Lance registered she had said she’d met Keith at _four in the morning._ Same as him. Kinda. Curiouser and curiouser.

***

It was quiet that night, with no one else in the house. Lance got his paper done on the living room couch in record time, thank you very much, even including a few rounds of Halo on the newly fixed TV. He was just finishing up the edits now. Sure, it was just past five, with only about four hours before his class was schedule – but he figured it was still a success.

He froze when he heard a scuffling sound, body tensing. He had been to one kickboxing class with Hunk at the university rec center last year, but he didn’t think that would be particularly useful against a burglar. Nevertheless, he closed the lid of his laptop slowly when he heard another noise.

This time it was a muffled thump, followed by a quiet but distinct, “Ah shit.” Maybe it was Hunk returning home in the early morning after a failed booty call with Shay. Or maybe Lance actually would stand a chance after all if a burglar this dumb was trying to break into the house.

He trained his eyes on the entrance, and startled when a door creaked open – but to his right. _Inside the house._ Swinging his body around, he shrieked. Later, he would tell himself this was only because of the surprise, not because of the sight that greeted him.

“Fuck!” A figure spluttered out elegantly in the doorway to a bedroom.

Between Lance's shout and this other guy's exclamation of surprise, Lance resolved that he had to stop running into Keith like this.

Oh. Right. _Keith._

The first thing Lance registered was _dark._ Dark clothes, dark expression, dark eyes, dark hair – wait. This was Keith? “What’s wrong with your hair?” he blurted out.

The other guy blinked, then did something with his mouth that Lance wasn’t sure if it was a scowl or a smile. “You’re Lance, I take it? I'd recognize that scream anywhere.”

"That, uh... Yeah.” And, _whoa,_ did that comment ever do things to him. Lance’s sleep deprived brain finally caught up, and with a start he held out his hand. Never be said that his mama didn’t raise him without manners, hair comment ignored. “Keith?”

The other guy nodded and, ah, there was the smile. Small, but present. Lance thought it was a very nice smile. He wanted to make pretty Keith smile all the time. Man, he’d die for that smile. Man, he’d, like, _kill_ for that smi- “Aaaaaand I am very sleep deprived,” Lance said sheepishly as Keith shook his hand.

Keith’s grip was firm and strong, and Lance was sorry to see it leave. Lance watched him lean on his doorjamb, expression bordering on amusement. “Night owl like Katie?”

“Big paper I had to finish,” Lance answered, stifling a yawn. “You regularly get up at four or five in the morning?”

Gesturing at his outfit, Lance could kick himself. Duh. He jogged. “Marathon training,” Keith said. Well… _Fuck_.

“On top of your masters?” Lance asked, voice sounding very far away.

“I like being on top of things,” Keith said with a shrug, then froze. His eyes crinkled in an apology and he chuckled awkwardly. _Double fuck._

“On that note, I should get going. Sorry I’m not at home much, I’m usually working on campus, working on my thesis. But we should hang out some time! Hunk said you’re pretty good at Halo.” Lance nodded, vaguely gesturing at the TV. Keith smirked, and then continued as if he couldn’t resist, “I’d love to top that high score.”

You know, come to think of it, maybe Lance had stayed up so late because he'd secretly been hoping to meet Keith in person. Dammit. (Worth it for that comment, though.)

And then, with a wave on his way out the door, Keith firmly changed Lance’s senior year of college forever. His tired ass brain was imagining dinner dates at home in the living room, picnic blankets and all, in between rounds of video games. He couldn’t believe how lucky and also how tortured his existence would be living alongside Keith and knowing he was now, and doing domestic things, and oh boy.

Because apparently this mysterious roommate of his was nice, smart, athletic, _and_ hot to boot. In a haze, Lance flopped down onto the couch.

_Triple. Fuck._

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Tumblr](http://https://emberglows.tumblr.com), if you want!
> 
> (Also, I thiiiiiiink I will try to pick up fanfic writing again in 2020, so I hope to see all my readers again soon <3 )


End file.
